Wake Up and Read
by Brent E. Zepke, Esq.
“Wake Up and Read,” the theme for this year’s National Library Week from April 6-12, 2025, describes most of my mornings after that first ever so good cup of coffee.
Libraries have not always been a part of my life.
As a child I thought the library in Oaklyn, New Jersey, was that big, old building where adults went to be told to be quiet.
I do not remember if Collingswood High School had a library.
As an undergraduate, student libraries were just a place to walk by on my way to somewhere else.
As a graduate, student libraries were that building on the other side of campus that was used in the university’s brochures.
As a law student my missions in the library were to complete the task as quickly as possible to use my time preparing for the classes I was teaching in the College of Business Administration. Experience had taught me that not being prepared for a law school class could be embarrassing, not being prepared for a class I was teaching was deadly.
As an instructor in Business Statistics, I used my lectures as an outline for a paperback book entitled Business Statistics, that was published by Harper & Row and was briefly on the L.A. Times best seller list.
As a graduate studying for the Bar Exam, I used my notes for a paperback entitled the Law for Non-lawyers, published by Littlefield Adams. I was thrilled to have the national library of my country, the Library of Congress, include my book.
As a young lawyer, I frequently could be found in the library behind the stack of books writing on a yellow legal pad while mumbling my interpretation of the relevance of the material.
Library Week in 2025 provided an opportunity for me to reflect on the peaceful times I had spent in libraries alone with my thoughts.
Library Week provided an opportunity for the California Attorney General (AG) Ron Bonta to announce in his Newsletter of April 6, that he had filed a lawsuit about libraries.
Institute for Museums and Library Services
The Museum and Library Services Act of 1996, 20 U.S.C. 961 et seq, purposes were to consolidate Federal library services; stimulate excellence and promote access to learning; to provide linkage among and between library centers; and to assist people of diverse geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, with disabilities and those with limited functional literary of informational skills.
The Act is administered by the Institute for Museums and Library Services (IMLS), whose Mission Statement is “to advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.”
On December 31, 2018, President Trump signed Public Law 115-410 that continued funding for the IMLS through fiscal year 2025, expanded the definition of library to include tribal libraries, and to provide training for future librarians.
The IMLS budget for 2023-2025 was $294 million.
Grants to States program
The Grants to States program is the way the IMLS is supposed to use to distribute funds to support the purpose and mission of the IMLS.
For example, the IMLS had funded a pilot program in Iowa to address needs of various Native American tribes, and a program in Tennessee to fund books for deaf or blind persons.
On March 21, 2024, President Biden, or his team, replacing Director Crosby Kemper III with Cyndee Landrum, caused the IMLS funding to shift to including DEI programs, such as:
•$15 million in DEI grant to the Connecticut State Library System to “integrate social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion into their daily operations.”
•$700,000 for Washington, DC based nonprofit to study “post pandemic DEI practices” in American children’s museum
•$265,000 DEI grant to Queens College in NY to conduct research on why Black, Indigenous, and people of Color, “BIPOC” teens read Japanese comic books.
President Trump
In 2025, President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14238 provided, among other things, that the activities of the IMLS must be reduced to its “statutory functions,” and “non-statutory components and functions … shall be eliminated. Our cultural institutions should bring Americans together---not promote divisive ideologies.”
On March 20, 2025, Acting IMLS Director Keith Sonderling said, “In keeping with the vision of the President’s executive orders, we’re taking action to end taxpayer funding for discriminatory DEI initiates in our nations museums and libraries.”
He has reportedly put 80% of the IMLS’s 70 employees on leave.
California
Attorney General Ron Bonta’s lawsuit, that was joined by 19 blue states, opposes the IMLS returning to its statutory purpose and Mission Statement.
In 2024, California received $15.7 million in IMLS awards to be distributed among its 1,127 libraries that have approximately 17,000 employees.
A recent study by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences found that federal funds represented a mere 0.03%, or 3 cents of every dollar, of the total operating revenue for public libraries.
Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Public Library (SBPL) is sponsoring events to celebrate the National Library Week of 2025.
In March 2024, the SBPL Librarian Jessica Cadiente and Service Manager Molly Wetta were placed on indefinite leave of absence with compensation: why?
There are three potential reasons for this:
1. An accommodation for an employee’s personal hardship, which is highly unlikely that this occurred to both employees simultaneously.
2. The employees committed some type of malfeasance, which is highly unlikely since, for example, Ms. Cadiente was reportedly paid $241,000 to stay home.
3. Someone else with authority paid them hush money to prevent their disclosing some type of malfeasance
In March 2025, it was reported that someone had approved paying $500,000 of taxpayers’ money under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to Ms. Cadiente so she would go away: why?
The only possible reason was to prevent the disclosure of the malfeasance of someone who had the authority to approve the NDA.
However, since SBPL performed during their absences, shouldn’t SBPL mirror the IMLS by eliminating jobs like Librarian and/or Service Manager?
Result
The intent of the IMLS is to follow the congressional intent and its Mission Statement.
My intent is to use the National Library Week to inspire others to discover the value of libraries earlier in life than I did.
Wake Up and Read.
Your stated intent admirable, your article enlightening! Common sense escapes CA, and other blue states. Yes, SBPL needs to mirror the IMLS by eliminating jobs like such as the two local high paying ones that proved unnecessary during the two extensive paid leaves. Curiosity remains regarding the $500K NDA payoff to silence.
How I wish all South County secondary, and specific SBUSD school libraries remained open to 6p to give all children a quiet place to read, do homework, and receive adult assistance. Too many SBUSD students — especially at Cleveland, Franklin, Harding, McKinley Elementary Schools — must remain on campus to 5;30-6. They sit in the auditorium/ multipurpose room.
Too many live in crowded conditions (5-6 persons in 450 sf) where it’s impossible to study. I visit some homes. To read, some wear headlights in a dark crowded living room with 3-4 stacked bunk beds while the TV or music plays. Forget a desk to do math. The only small meal table doubles as the pantry stacked high with cases of canned food and water. No one complains, it’s simply reality reminding me again of the purpose and need for libraries.
There’s criticism of dismal student proficiency while we deprive too many students of access to their neighborhood school library. Why?
Prior to school libraries, how many of us grew up with two working parents who instructed us to walk to the nearby public library after school? Libraries, books became part of our daily routine. We were expected to read. Locally, students attending high proficiency K-6 schools are required to learn 15 new vocabulary words a week, and read 20-30 minutes a day with signed parent weekly confirmation. (Reminds me of the Readers Digest increase your word power quiz; then reading a few articles.)
Sadly, too many local school library doors are locked by 2:30-3p and all day Saturday. Let’s help youth make libraries a habit again!
Excellent Brent, don't listen to the comments that say you should have gotten to the point faster. Your point was beautifully made, and made much more eloquently because you didn't scold the reader.
I personally had a great relationship with the downtown public library when I was a teen. You could take out recordings of music and magazines that had articles about people and things you were interested in.
But I stopped in my twenties. So your column resonated with me as well.
Thank you for relaying your personal journey and why we all need to protect our libraries from this kind of grift.